Tuesday, May 01, 2007

May Day Union Square

Here are the photos I took today at the Immigration Day / May Day / Che Day rally at Union Square Park. The first picture in my slide show I took early this morning of a man who was standing alone with an American flag and a sign that said 'Americans for Legal Immigration'. A small oppositional portent of what was to follow.

I could hear the crowds roaring from blocks away as I headed towards the park after work. I was amazed at the size of the gathering. A cop that I spoke to said they weren't expecting this many people. The place was jammed, overflowing and everyone, it seemed had a bullhorn. The usual suspects were there, the Socialists, Communists, the Israel-haters, the Anarchist Marching Band showed up which was something new, and even a Mumia lover, but Che was definitely the man of the hour. I was able to take a few shots before the march headed down to Foley Square.

18 Comments:

Disclaimer - I am a NYC residing Republican who continues to support the Iraq war.

From your pictures one can tell that the majority of the protestors in Union Square seem to be far left loonies.

Especially, the ones abusing Bush; since the Prez is an ardent supporter of a sane Immigration bill, which will put a very large number of undocumented people on the path of citizenship. And what Israel has to do with Immigration escapes me.Now that out of the way, how do you suggest we handle the situation?

Deporting the whole lot is not only cruel and prohibitively expensive, but also immoral. Because America was built by immigrants, who displaced a people [Natives/Indians] who were already living here and whose descendants are living in abject conditions right in front of our eyes, casinos, notwithstanding. More importantly, anybody with a basic knowledge of Economics knows that we need them and not just for cheap veggies.No Urban, if they go, we welcome a massive economic depression.Alternately, keeping them in a permanent limbo exposes us as greedy hypocrites.

Re: Jager:"Because America was built by immigrants..." like MY great-grandparents, who CAME OVER LEGALLY, my friend, and LEGALLY carved out a life for themselves in the Oregon Territories!

"...who displaced a people [Natives/Indians] who were already living here and whose descendants are living in abject conditions..."

Displaced people like MY grandfather, who decided to give himself a chance as an American, and enlisted as a doughboy and fought the Boche in France; then returned to start SEVERAL families in America... (but that's a different story!)

That Amerindians of today often choose alcoholism, crime, drug-abuse or suicide is attributable to several different dynamics, not the least of which is the continued enforced ignorance of Baha'u'llah and the import of His Coming!

More to the point here, Jager, is that illegal immigration does NOT remedy earlier perceived 'crimes' against Amerindians. It exacerbates problems in mainland America, many of which affect, in their turn, Amerindians and other minorities striving to live LEGALLY in our agreed framework: Constitution and Law.

As for your assertion that "...anybody with a basic knowledge of Economics knows that we need them..." I assert that many with ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE of Economics and Sociology and Political Science and other specialized areas of study (demographics and the impact of ONE MILLION ABORTIONS twenty years ago on the labor market of today) knows that WE CAN ALLOW MANY IN AS LEGAL IMMIGRANTS, but we all suffer when we subvert our law, economic law or federal law!

UI, I'm finally back commenting. What a hassle with blogger. Anyway, as always, I'm happy to see your fine photojournalism here. Yet, I'm saddened that I have the distinct feeling that many more of these types of events are in our future. Even if these people got everything they want, they'd find some other stupid cause to protest. That said, we - the true and just Americans - should never give up!

You can see from the signage in your pictures that the rally wasn't really for immigration. It was another communist/socialist inspired method of sowing discord in the United States. Their real aim is to balkanize Americans and get us fighting with each other. That's why they're always trying to "group" Americans into categories revolving around, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. One amazing thing about this entire Mexican issue, is the restrictions THEY place on Americans.

From the Mexican Constitution:

Article 8Public functionaries and employees will respect the public exercise to their right to petition, as long as it is formulated in writing, in a peaceful and respectful manner. In political petitioning, only citizens of the republic have this right.

Article 9Freedom of assembly and association. Only citizens of the Republic may take part in the political affairs of the country.

Article 32"Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable." Foreigners, immigrants, and even naturalized citizens of Mexico may not serve as military officers, Mexican-flagged ship and airline crew, or chiefs of seaports and airports.

Article 33"The Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action." It also states: "Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country."------------------------------------------That's just the tip of the iceberg how Mexico restricts the rights of non-Mexican citizens. There are restrictions on owning property, people not born as a Mexican citizen are excluded from numerous federal government positions, etc.

Nobody talks about this obvious hypocrisy though, and Mexico is the biggest cheerleader for illegal alien amnesty. It has numerous Mexican government affairs offices throughout the United States to facilitate illegal aliens and permits the propagation of the idea of Reconquesta (including by elected officials and government officers), which is the concept of demographically overwhelming the western and south western United States as a means for eventually severing it from the union and reuniting it with Mexico, thereby recovering the territory lost after the Mexican-American War. Kind of similar to what the muslims are doing in Europe right now.

Karradine - Indeed, there are several Public intellectual who agree with your perspective on the effects of Illegal Immigration on American life.

However, when i meet with [i work for a major investment bank, where I research and guide investments in emerging market economies] the business class across all sectors, the one grouse i hear is the lack of labor. If you wish America to have a decent shot at maintaning her Economic supermacy, we have to accept some hard truths. i.e, we desperately need cheap labor in order to compete with growing behemoths , China and India.